Ethiopia COVID 19 update: one person tested positive, total 56

Latest Ethiopia COVID 19 update indicates that a Canadian man of Ethiopian origin reportedly tested positive for the virus

Latest Ministry of Health on the state of Coronavirus in Ethiopia. Source : MoH

borkenaApril 9, 2020

The Ministry of Health said on Thursday that one more person tested positive for COVID 19. A total of 294 persons were tested over the past 24 hours.

The total number of COVID 19 patients in the country is now 56. On April 3, three individuals tested positive. Well over half of the patients had a travel history outside of the country.

The latest person who tested positive for the virus had a travel history. He came to Ethiopia from Canada via Dubai.

At this time, only two patients are reportedly in the intensive care unit. Four patients have recovered, and two patients have died.

The Ministry of Health encourages Ethiopians to report any persons who had contact or exposure to confirmed COVID 19 individuals.

Implementing social distancing and staying home has proved challenging for social and economic reasons. On Wednesday, the Council of Ministers approved a state of emergency, which still will have to go to the parliament for approval.

Adanech Abeebe said on Wednesday that the state of emergency is declared because it has become difficult to enforce the law with regular law enforcement tools and procedures.

Meanwhile, the Ministry disclosed that 554 individuals who had been in quarantine were released following a test for COVID 19 virus. They arrived in the country after Ethiopia introduced a two weeks of mandatory quarantine for individuals arriving from abroad.

Neighboring Eritrea has completely banned commercial flights to and from the country which will remain in effect for at least three more weeks. Until Wednesday, April 8, 2020, the total number of confirmed COVID 19 cases in Eritrea is 33.

In Africa, well over 11,000 people are infected and about 558 deaths are reported until April 9, 2020. The number of people infected with the virus around the world is now over 1.59 million. 94,705 people have died from the disease, and 348, 319 reportedly recovered.